This June, E! turns 30! To celebrate we're looking back at the most monumental moments in pop culture.
Fact: You just can't spell entertainment without E!
Thirty, flirty and thriving! That's our motto this month as we celebrate our 30th anniversary and you know we're going to celebrate in style. All month long, we're going to celebrate by looking back at the biggest events in pop culture—and what better way to kick off our birthday party than by reliving the unforgettable E! moments that have become pop culture mainstays over the last three decades.
Some of those moments? An infamous phone call to a Vanity Fair writer from a Pretty Wild star and that classic selfie Kim Kardashian West took that has lived on as a .GIF since she snapped it. Oh, and some headline-making live interviews on the red carpet, including that shocking moment when ashes were spilled all over Ryan Seacrest. Like we always tell you, anything can happen when you're live!
From classic Keeping Up With the Kardashians moments to a jawdropping on-stage flirtation at the People's Choice Awards, here are all of the unforgettable E! moments that helped define pop culture...
"Kim, would you stop taking pictures of yourself? Your sister's going to jail." I. Con. Ic.
Before she went to prison for her role in the infamous "bling ring" burglaries, Alexis Neiers and her family were documented by E!'s cameras for their reality show Pretty Wild in 2010. While the show only ran for one season, it delivered an iconic moment that has lived on years later.
After reading a profile about her written by Vanity Fair's Nancy Jo Sales, an upset Alexis decided to call the writer only to get her voicemail. Reality TV gold ensues.
"Nancy Jo, this is Alexis Neiers calling," she begins her voicemail, but continues to repeat over and over and over because her mom, Andrea Arlington-Dunne, keeps interrupting, especially when she's trying to fact-check that she was wearing "four inch little brown Bebe shoes, not six inch Louboutins.
A decade later, the feud rages on.
After suffering severe injuries in a car accident in September 2019, Kevin Hart made his first official appearance at the 2019 E! People's Choice Awards to accept the award for Comedy Act of 2019, delivering an emotional speech after receiving a standing ovation.
"First and foremost, thank God because I definitely don't have to be here," hart said. "Being that I am, it makes me appreciate life even more. It makes me appreciate the things that really matter. Family. I want to thank my wife and kids, who really stepped up to the plate for me."
Hart also thanked his loyal fans, concluding, "You have no idea the effect you have on us as entertainers your energy, your support. It means the world and I truly want to thank you guys for being there for me in my difficult time."
No one knew what to expect when Sacha Baron Cohen arrived at the 2012 Oscars in character as General Aladeen, this buffoonish despot from The Dictator—especially not Ryan Seacrest.
But when he arrived to the Live From the Red Carpet podium carrying an urn filled with what he claimed was his "dear friend and doubles tennis partner, Kim Jong Il," the host seemed to know what was coming next: Cohen spilled the contents of the urn all over Seacrest's Burberry tuxedo.
"We need to clean this up!" the actor yelled. "But if someone asks you what you are wearing, say Kim Jong Il!" Meanwhile, a stunned Seacrest just said, "I had an idea something was coming, I didn't know in what fashion or form," as his E! co-hosts laughed.
Seacrest later revealed Cohen apologized to him and revealed his original target for the red carpet stunt was going to be George Clooney.
In the season four finale of KUWTK, Kourtney delivered the fist of the next gen of Kardashians...literally.
While giving birth to Mason Disick, Kourtney memorably pulled him out during labor, which almost all of the family members were present for.
"The experience was so indescribable and life-changing, and I can't believe he's all mine," Kourt said.
She would go on to help deliver her second child, daughter Penelope, in season seven, with Khloe Kardashian saying at the time, "Kourtney just loves to pull out her own children."
But you never forget your first.
Remember when Lady Gaga arrived at the 2011 Grammy Awards being carried inside of an egg, which later hatched on stage as she launched into her performance of "Born This Way"?
Of course you do, as Ryan Seacrest had the task of trying to crack the pop star during their interview.
"She's in an embryonic state and won't be born until the performance," one of egg-carriers told him of Gaga, who spent about three hours inside the egg with just her Blackberry. (Ahhh, remember those?)
Arguably one of the most epic meltdowns in reality TV history, Kim hysterically crying over losing her $75,000 diamond earring in the ocean during a family trip to Bora Bora has proven to stand the test of time since first airing in 2011.
"Kim, there's people that are dying," a dead-pan Kourtney said as Kim's hysterics continued. Ultimately, they found the earring and much like the diamond in it, this clip will live on forever.
Total Bellas stars Nikki Bella and Brie Bella announced they were both pregnant in January 2020, revealing they are due a week and a half apart!
Nikki is expecting her first child with fiancé Artem Chigvintsev, while Brie is expecting her second child with her husband Daniel Bryan, with their pregnancy journeys being documented on their E! reality show, from finding out the news, sharing it with each other and their family members, and more.
On March 11, 2010, two global powerhouses came together on E! News: Lady Gaga and Beyonce, as we exclusively debuted the world premiere of their highly anticipated music video for "Telephone."
"There certainly is a [Quentin] Tarantino-inspired quality in the ['Telephone'] video," Lady Gaga explained to E! at the time. "His direct involvement in [it] came from him lending me the Pussy Wagon. We were having lunch one day in Los Angeles and I was telling him about my concept for the video and he loved it so much he said, 'You gotta use the Pussy Wagon.'"
And that's the story of how Queen Bey rescued Gaga from prison in the Pussy Wagon.
First come an interview, then comes marriage!
At least that's how it worked for E! News host Giuliana Rancic and husband Bill Rancic.
In an interview on Huffington Post Live, Giuliana revealed that she became "obsessed" with Bill when he starred on reality show The Apprentice back in 2004. The pair then met the following year when she interviewed him and the rest his history.
"I would watch [the show] with my girlfriend Colette every week, and Colette's like, 'You need to marry him.' I'm like, 'I do need to marry him,'" Giuliana recalled. "So that's why when the assignment came up at E! I was all over that."
Giuliana and Bill wed in a 2007 ceremony, going on to welcome their son Duke in August 2012/
While accepting the award for Female Artist of the Year at the 2018 E!'s People Choice Awards, Nicki Minaj decided to shoot her shot, hitting on Michael B. Jordan in her speech.
After thanking her fans, the "Chun-Li" rapper thanked Donatella Versace for custom-making her outfit before saying, "And shout out to Michael B. Jordan cause he's gonna be taking it off of me tonight." She then winked at the crowd.
Minaj later explained to Jason Kennedy that there was a special reason why she gave the flirty shout-out: "I was watching Black Panther last night, so he was just...happened to be fresh in my mind," she shared.
During her four years on E!'s Fashion Police, Joan Rivers delivered an endless stream of laughs, transforming the infamous question of "Who are you wearing?" to "What are they wearing?!"
Choosing one of the trailblazing comedian's memorable moments was no easy feat, but when Rivers, who passed away in 2014, stepped out dressed as Jersey Shore star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi for the show's Halloween episode in 2010, sitting alongside the real Snooki with matching dresses, poufs and fake tans, well, that was classic and the ultimate "icon stole my look."
Their relationship and reality series, Rob & Chyna, may have been short-lived, but we'll always have this .GIF.
Ahead of the world premiere of her 2016 E! reality show Mariah's World, superstar Mariah Carey arrived at the Summer TCA Press Tour to promote the show in the most Mariah Carey way ever: carried in by shirtless men, sitting on a velvet purple throne with a glass of champagne in her hand the whole time. Her glam squad also came out for touch-ups throughout her charming chat with the room full of transfixed TV journos.
Leave it to The Soup to get Danny Bonaduce to show up in-person to collect his Lifetime Trainwreck Award. You just can't look away, you know?
Remember that time Jennifer Aniston finally joined Instagram in October 2019 and literally broke it? You can basically thank E!'s own Will Marfuggi for the Friends' star's social media presence, as he asked/sort-of-peer-pressured Aniston about joining the platform just days before she actually did it.
"I'm claiming this as victory! You're welcome, America," Will said on Live From E! after The Morning Show star finally caved.